Articles

Vineyards on the Greek island of Santorini face an uncertain future as climate challenges intensify. With less rain and mounting tourism pressure, winemakers are figuring out how to keep wineries viable, while also trying to preserve viticultural heritage. Paul Caputo reports.

Not far from Santa Barbara is the Sta. Rita Hills appellation, home to some outstanding cool climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. With Burgundy set to get even more expensive, here’s an alternative.

Now that producers are reducing the amount of oak they use and pursuing terroir-first wines, the different personalities of Aglianico, Southern Italy’s key red wine grape, are finally making themselves known.

Producers of Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG are slowly but surely shaking off a reputation for bland and insipid wines. The combination of attractive new releases and clear longevity in wines produced over the last decade is a convincing advert for this historic wine territory.

Paul Caputo looks at the growing interest around single vineyard Prosecco and contemplates the significance of heroic viticulture. How important is terroir in the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene DOCG appellation and can we taste it in the glass?

As growers celebrate 100 years of the demarcation of Moulin a Vent's vineyards, it looks forward to a more Burgundian approach to classifying its best sites.

Something has happened to Soave in the last decade. It seems to have gone from being one of the most uninspiring names in wine to one of the most spectacularly under valued whites around. The secret, it seems, lies in a new generation of winemakers that focus on freshness, balance and the relentless pursuit of expressing the mineral rich hillsides of the appellation's historic 'classico' zone.

The Gurjaani Wine Festival in Georgia has become one of the biggest cultural and gastronomic events in the country. Here are a few reflections on Paul Caputo's first visit.

Piedmont's Grignolino grape could be very trendy. Its light body and red fruit flavours are in stylistic demand, but what's holding it back?

Oregon makes some of the best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the world. Here are 12 Willamette Valley names that should be on your radar.

Paul Caputo picks 50 estates from Italy’s vast, vibrant and constantly improving roster of thousands of wineries. If you’re short on time and need a quick guide to some brilliant wineries to follow, you can’t go wrong with these. Some are well established, while others have not yet achieved the fame their work deserves. Nevertheless, they produce wines that are made authentically with genuine respect for their vineyards and territory.

Controversy and confusion, many questions and some answers. Here's the 2022 revision of the Saint-Émilion Classification

The nested AVAs of the Santa Ynez Valley need to be on your radar. Producing some of the best Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in California, they are a must-know for lovers of fresh, elegant wine styles. Here's a short overview of the appellations and some key wineries to look out for.

Some reflections on how Maison Louis Latour is equipping itself for the future.

Some thoughts on Vermentino's resilience when it comes to higher temperatures and drier soils. Here's what some winemakers in warm climates think about the Sardinian variety.

Paul Caputo considers Friuli-Venezia-Giulia's traditional expression of Pinot Grigio and famous copper colour.

Lauren Mowery attended the 2023 preview of the VDP’s Grosses Gewächs (GG) wines in Wiesbaden. The event featured hundreds of the best dry wines in Germany, including a vast selection of Spätburgunder. Despite challenges in the 2021 vintage, the wines displayed character and distinctive regional personality. Lauren picks out her favourites.

Etna’s evocative landscapes conjure thoughts of vibrant wines that bristle with energy, tart fruit and fiery acidity. The territory is in vogue right now and even with some lofty prices the wines are an easy sell. Reds from Nerello Mascalese have driven the recent renaissance, but Paul Caputo predicts it will be the whites wines that write the next chapter in Etna’s wine story.

From tending vineyards to influencing winemaking techniques, women have played a pivotal role in shaping Crete's viticultural heritage. Lauren Mowery explores the unsung contributions of Cretan women, highlighting their work as custodians of tradition.

Timorasso represents one of the great comebacks of the Italian wine scene. All but lost to the archives of history it was rescued by winemaker Walter Massa and not only kept in circulation harvest after harvest, but elevated to the podium as one of the country’s great white wines. His success inspired such a revival that growers are now restructuring their appellation for a bright new future. Paul Caputo charts the changes.

Don’t let the romantic archaeological sites, coastal lakes, beaches, thermal springs, and nature reserves fool you. This is one of the most dangerous places on earth make to wine. Paul Caputo tastes through some of the Campi Flegrei’s best white wines and discovers an appellation growing in confidence, producing wines with charm and personality that are impossible to replace elsewhere. We’re embarking on a golden age for Falanghina Flegrea.

Paul Caputo has been travelling around the south of Italy for the last 15 years, tasting wines, meeting producers and tracking its impressive development. During this period many estates experienced a generational transition that brought in new ideas and balanced them with local traditions. Scientific and technological improvements have helped renew respect for the region’s forgotten production areas while a growing understanding and appreciation of southern grape varieties has amplified these positive changes. Campania has made immense progress over the last two decades and in recognition, Paul has compiled a list of his 50 most exciting wines to track down and experience.

Paul Caputo travelled to Montefalco in May 2022 for an in-depth look at the latest 2018 Sagrantino release. He discovered that the appellation’s key names continue to produce excellent wines and set the benchmark for what is ultimately a very challenging variety to work with.

Giovanni Frascolla of Tua Rita fame has taken over at Poggio Argentiera in Tuscany’s Maremma region. He talks to Paul Caputo about making high-quality wines from the local Sangiovese, and Ciliegiolo, as well as his young team of winemakers and ambitious plans for the future.

Falanghina is one of Southern Italy’s key white grape varieties, but has long been considered a poor relation to the likes of Greco di Tufo and Fiano di Avellino. Perhaps some of this sentiment comes from a lack of association with a famous terroir and the stereotype that it is a simple wine to drink young. Paul Caputo looks at the Fontanavecchia estate’s age worthy wines and their ability to improve over time.

When Miguel Mateu purchased the Castle of Perelada in 1923, a vast renovation was needed. His dream was to modernise one of Catalonia’s great historical wineries into something fit for the future. Yet such an aspiration is timeless. The need to strike a balance between utility and statements of tradition, between context and innovation, has continuously loomed over every architectural project, and the wine business is no different. What has changed however, is our considerations of how things work, and what things mean; in short perhaps, fashion.

Aglianico del Vulture must be considered one of the great terroirs of Italy. Its ruggedly beautiful terrain tumbles from the foothills of Monte Vulture, an ancient and extinct volcano situated in the thick of the Mezzogiorno. At dusk, its talon shaped crater crafts an eerie silhouette against the crimson sky and the little lights of the Vulture’s (vul-tur-aay) hilltop villages flicker beneath the stars. This is a wine that looms large in the hearts and minds of its admirers, for to truly understand the Aglianico grown in these ancient soils, is to understand Basilicata and its culture of struggle.

The picturesque surroundings of the Disan area, located just outside the town of Negotino, in the famous Tikveš Wine District, might remind us of the rolling hills of Tuscany. Boasting the breathtaking scenery of unspoiled nature, vast stretches of vineyards quilt the landscape. Of course, flashes of every day rural Macedonian life also populate the view; ambling villagers, labourers in the fields, the old and rusting road signs, and the tinny echo of rudimentary farming equipment, all symbolic of times gone by, remind us that we are clearly on the Balkans. When it comes to wine though, things are changing fast...

Paul Caputo considers how the runaway popularity of rosé has provided a fantastic opportunity to highlight the amazing culture of rosé drinking in Puglia and in particular Salento.

Pantelleria is one of the most interesting terroirs in Italy. Known as the black pearl of the Mediterranean, this secluded Sicilian island is entirely volcanic, formed through a series of eruptions that have gradually composed its contoured slopes of basalt and shiny obsidian. Over time, man has left his mark too, sculpting walled terraces in order to cultivate grapes, capers and olives, and such endeavours have helped develop its famous vistas of simple, agricultural life.

There are few serious wine collectors clamouring to stockpile Gavi. Why would they? The Cortese grape is known for its simple, drink-early freshness, not for its ability to mature and certainly not for its capacity to deliver complex wines that merit being hidden away in the cellar for years. Ask around the wine world and you’d be hard pressed to find someone prepared to put Gavi in their list of age worthy whites. Sure, they’ll enjoy a glass or two as an aperitif, but momentous wine it is not.

Tomasi di Lampedusa’s colourful and evocative portrayal of the creeping, sleepy decline of the Sicilian aristocracy offers a romantic backdrop from which to consider one of the island’s more sluggish DOCs...

In modern wine making terms Macedonia is still a very young country. It only gained independence as recently as 1991, and with little history of quality focused producers before this, there is no legacy of fine wines for us to turn our attention to when seeking to understand today's wines.

Just before the clouds burst, the brooding grey sky hung low over a vertical wall of jagged basalt, the key geological feature of San Giovanni Ilarione, a rustic agricultural village nestled in the heart of Italy's trendiest sparkling wine appellation - Lessini Durello DOC.